Overnight Lasagna Oats

I'm a pretty prideful person. It's a terrible thing. My pride invades every aspect of my life. My conversations, my attitude, my relationships, and even my cooking. So sometimes I think I'm an such an awesome cook and whatever I make will turn out just how I want it to. But I pretty sure that's the case for anyone...getting it right every single time?

I mean, God has really blessed me with a lot of small talents. I'm no rockstar at any one thing, but He's given me the ability to be pretty good at many different things. (Often, I think I'd rather be really great at one thing and be terrible at everything else, but that would probably not be awesome all the time either.)

So I need to be grateful for what I've been given, while not getting cocky about it. Life is a balance. On our own, all we can do is swing back and forth between two bad lifestyles.

For example: cocky or insecure. And sometimes we manage to be both cocky and insecure! It's crazy what terrible things we can come up with on our own. Thankfully, Jesus can help us balance. With Him, at least once and a while (or hopefully more often) I can be humble and grateful. And that's something I'm thankful for!

I don't post my mistakes...most of the time. I mean, sometimes I do cook something that is super tasty.

This one may sound like it, but no--this one was NOT a failure. It was deliciousness. In a bowl.

Overnight Lasagna Oats

For one serving:

1/2 cup old-fashioned oats

milk/water (enough to cover the oats)

baby spinach

1-2 tbs ricotta

2-3 tbs pasta/marinara sauce

pepper

sprinkle of parmesan 

*optional: basil, precooked chicken or beef, or whatever else you put in your lasagna!

Some of these ingredients don't have amounts. It's basically up to what sounds good to you. I layered all of these things in the order that they are listed into a microwave dish and then left it in the fridge overnight. You could have it cold the next day (if you're into the cold lasagna flavor) or you could warm it up in the microwave for about a minute, like I did!

Note:

I didn't stir it together at allso it maintained a more lasagna-like feel, but I'm sure it'd be good mixed up too--and it would probably cook more evenly.

Blue-green Scrambled Eggs

I was listening to some "Christian" radio yesterday. I do most days. I'm not one of those people who thinks "Christian music" is the only music that should be listened to. (I'm even putting quotes around it, because the word Christian shouldn't be an adjective, in my opinion, it should be a noun, a person!)

But some of those songs have great lyrics. They are lyrics which really are worshiping the one true God for all that He does, has done, and will do. Not all of the songs, but a good amount of them.

I'm not sure what's worse though: singing along mindlessly to a song which praises and worships the King of Kings, or singing along mindlessly with a song which blatantly puts people down and includes degrading lies. Either way, you might be completely checked out.

Perhaps there is not a "worse" in this situation. Like most things, it might be two wrong areas that we don't want to be in. One side of the spectrum is a bad idea, and the other side is also bad!

It would be good to try to be somewhere...in the middle. Listening to either, but making sure that I don't sing along unless I mean it, and making sure that if I mean it, it is good stuff to be saying.

Hopefully that made sense.

Again...no transition...

Blue green is actually a main color in a lot of languages. Some languages only have 3 color words, or 4. And actually blue-green is kind of common. So these eggs would definitely be describable in most languages of the world. Fun stuff.

Super easy recipe coming up here...

Bleen (blue-green) Eggs

Ingredients (for one or two servings)
1/3 c of slightly thawed frozen blueberries
2 eggs
2 tbs of mashed banana
pinch of salt
1/4 tsp vanilla

Scramble eggs and mashed banana. Add remaining ingredients. Then cook in frying pan as you would any normal scrambled eggs. Woot woot! Done.

Enjoy!

Notes:
-as you can tell from the pictures, I put some blueberry jam on toast and enjoyed the combination.
-I might recommend a little sugar if you like it sweeter (that's why I had it with jam). I'm sure it'd be great with a little powdered sugar sprinkled on top!
-I thought these eggs were going to be green...like the Dr. Suess story. Pfft. Sillyness. If you're looking for a natural way to make green eggs to go with your ham (without adding food coloring) try adding just 1 or 2 blueberries...or pureeing them and adding a tsp!

Chai Almond Panocakelet

One thing I've recently learned, is that cooking doesn't really have rules.

So it kind of does. More like...laws of nature. You can't put sugar on pepperoni and expect it to taste like crackers. That would be ridiculous.

And there are ways which people have learned to cook certain things so that they turn out tasting really great. But those aren't really rules either. You don't have to follow the recipe, do you?

I'm not saying you shouldn't follow the recipe. I'm just saying...there's no rules that say you have to, if you're just cooking to cook.

This is why I sometimes read cookbooks more like regular books. I mean I read them. I don't sit down and pop one open and make it. If I want to make something, I like to read a couple of recipes for it. Do my research. Think about it. Then I make it, or I wait.

I like learning about the ingredients. I like knowing what egg does when you combine it with milk. Or what vinegar does when you combine it with baking soda (other than make a marvelous volcano!).

That's why I like baking. Because it's basically chemistry, but I'm not following any formulas or doing any difficult math. And I get to eat the finished product!

It's like experimenting. In my kitchen. With food. What could be more fun?

It's so great.

So this is something that I wanted to make this morning. Something between an omelet and a pancake. So kind of like a crepe. But bigger. It probably has a name, and correlates with some recipe somewhere. But I'm going to call it a panocakelet. Because I can. Say it aloud with me, "PANOCAKELET!"

Doesn't it sound yummy? I'll tell you how I made it.

Chai Almond Panocakelet

Ingredients (one serving)
for panocakelet batter:
1 egg
1 tsp flour
1/8 cup almond milk

pinch baking soda
pinch salt
1 tsp chai powder (I used green tea chai powder)

add-in: 1/8 cup of sliced almonds (I used raw, unsalted)

for "chai sauce":
Mix 1 tsp chai powder with small drops of almond milk until desired consistency is reached.
(I added nut butter as a thickener/to get the texture I wanted.)
You can make it into more of a frosting by adding powdered sugar, butter, and/or cream cheese.

Gather the ingredients, mix all batter ingredients.

Pour the panocakelet batter in a greased pan which has been warmed to medium-high heat. Flip when the bottom appears to be done (lift it up to check).

Then fill it with sliced almonds and chai...sauce!

It's a delicious eggy pancake. Panocakelet. Mmm. Enjoy!